4 Susan Sontag first editions are documented on this shelf, from The Benefactor (1963) to In America (2000) across 4 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Susan Sontag title from later printings and book-club copies — the publisher and year to expect, the number-line or edition-statement conventions, and the tells that show up in online listings.
Identification only, per the house rule: no prices and no appraisals here. Checking a Susan Sontag copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.
- The Benefactor — 1963 · Farrar, Straus and CompanyNew York: Farrar, Straus and Company, 1963. The first printing is stated — the copyright page reads "First Printing, 1963." Note the imprint carefully: the firm was Farrar, Straus and Company at this date and did not become Farrar, Straus & Giroux until 1964, so catalogue records and even reference sites that print "Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1963" are normalizing to the later name; the title page is the…. US Farrar, Straus and Company (New York) 1963 is the true first and is Sontag's first book — the census claim is confirmed. The first UK edition is Eyre & Spottiswoode, London, 1964 (273 pp, dark brown boards lettered in gilt); it is collected in its own right as the first English edition of the author's first book, but it is a year later and second in precedence. No book-club issue of the 1963 Farrar, Straus printing is documented in the sources consulted. The trap on this title is "first thus" reprints rather than club copies: the later Picador/FSG paperback reissue (ISBN 9780312420123) is frequently offered under the original 1963 copyright and is a reprint, not a first.
- Against Interpretation and Other Essays — 1966 · Farrar, Straus & GirouxTrue first published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York, 1966 (essays written 1961-1965); the first printing carries FSG's first-edition statement on the copyright page with no additional printings indicated (house practice states 'First edition' / 'First printing (year)' and drops it on reprints). Bound in white boards stamped in red and black with black endpapers, the spine printed in lavender and red with…. US FSG 1966 is the true first for this collection (Sontag's first essay collection). The census note of a 'UK Eyre & Spottiswoode 1967' was not independently confirmed in this pass and should be treated as unverified; regardless, the US edition holds precedence. No book-club issue documented for the 1966 first. Later Farrar/Delta and Picador printings are reprints/'first thus.'.
- On Photography — 1977 · Farrar, Straus and GirouxThe true first is the Farrar, Straus and Giroux issue of 1977, 207 pp., bound in grey cloth with white lettering to the spine and issued in a pictorial dust jacket designed by Jacqueline Schuman. The copyright page bears a 'Copyright (c) 1973' notice (the essays first ran in the New York Review of Books, 1973-1977) together with the FSG first-printing designation; FSG did not use a number line in this period, so…. US precedence: Sontag was American and the FSG (New York) issue of 1977 is the true first. The UK edition (Allen Lane, London) followed in 1978 and is a later printing / 'first thus', not the true first. No book-club edition is a common trap for the true first. The title was heavily reprinted by FSG and later reset as a Picador/FSG trade paperback (ISBN 0-312-42009-9); all are identified as reprints by later printing statements or a new ISBN.
- In America — 2000 · Farrar, Straus and GirouxFirst printing states 'First edition, 2000' on the copyright page and carries the standard FSG number line ending in 1. Issued in a printed-price dust jacket. The US FSG hardcover (2000) is the accepted true first and the National Book Award for Fiction winner. A Jonathan Cape London edition appeared the same year; the US FSG printing is the established first. Book-club editions are typically smaller in format, lack the FSG number line, may carry a blind-stamp to the rear board, and have an unpriced jacket.
More Literary Fiction (US) & Award Winners shelves: T. H. White, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Theodore Dreiser, Theodore Roethke, Theodore Sturgeon, Thomas Hardy.
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